In any experimental situation, decisions concerning the idea of measurement need to be made continually. This may at first seem trivially simple. But the science of metrology, and the very act of the measurement process, are both fascinating and complex. The two large questions are: 1. what we wish to measure and, 2. how to do it. Each question is far from simple.
What actually is desired to be measure is crucial, for answering this question assumes an accurate working knowledge of what is happening in the experimental set up, the basic mechanisms of nature with which we are dealing, and the well defined features of those natural processes which are of interest. These features may be such things as temperature, light intensity, angular displacement, the velocity of something, etc.
How to do this is the next question. Very often things are not measured directly, but indirectly by measuring something else than the intended result. It is vital to be certain that this something else always represents the final desired quantity. For example, with a radar gun used to measure speed of a moving vehicle, the dopler frequency shift in a microwave beam is the indirect quantity measured. However an airplane speed check of a moving vehicle, made with road markers and a stopwatch, measures speed directly.
So in addition to the primary variable, the thing to be determined, there are often one or more dependent or intermediate variables, which are the quantities actually measured. Through electronic circuitry the radar gun reformulates the frequency change into an electronic impulse, which powers the display which can be read.
In addition there is the question of a particular transducer, or sensor: the device which translates one form of information into another (usually more convenient) form. An oral fever thermometer transforms sub lingual temperature into a distance scale via liquid in a tube.
Once the desired information is acquired, and stored in some manner, it is often very useful to transform the data yet again in some say. The transformation of the data, and the reasons for performing it, are usually described by somewhat sophisticated mathematics. Despite this data transformation, what happens may be viewed as an extension of the thermometer taking temperature into distance, or the way a conical measuring cup translates volume into distance in a non-linear wayxe2x80x94being more sensitive at smaller measurement volumes. This last example anticipates the enormous field of the processing of data, especially its valid statistical treatment (in order to maximize useful information without being misled), and the field of data transformation (to allow occult information to become self-revealing).
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided in an opto-electronic device utilizing a band of light for quantitative analysis of a specimen containing a target molecule, the opto-electronic device comprising a specimen cell adapted for receiving the specimen and for transporting the band of light, a device for comparing the band of light before entering the specimen with the band of light after exiting the specimen, wherein the target molecule. The device for comparing comprises: an optical sensor; and, a signal processor for determining a quantitative level of the target molecule within the specimen. The signal processor utilizes Bayes"" Theorem for determining the quantitative level of the target molecule within the specimen.